A Spiritual Moment

Another candidate for the 2007 edition of Best American Jewish Writing:  “A Spiritual Moment,” by David Wolpe:

I stood by the hospital bed of a friend who was dying of cancer.  He wanted to know why he was sick, why he must die, why he must leave his children and grandchildren.  As his rabbi, I was armed with few answers.  I could tell him that it was part of God’s plan or I could confess to him that I did not know.  Neither seemed like the right response.

So, instead, we exchanged stories about chemotherapy.  My hair was just beginning to grow back after a bout with lymphoma; his, wispy to start, was gone from the drugs that had targeted all the fast-growing cells in his body.  They had done a thorough job on his hair but not on his cancer.

We talked about the strange gratitude we felt for the medicinal poison as it coursed through our veins. There was a moment of solidarity, then sadness returned.  Battle stories are not nostalgic when they end in death. . . .

“So,” he asked, “why did it happen to you?”

Continue reading here.  It is a magnificent essay.

Entries in this series:

1.  Rob Eshman, "And Who Shall Die?"

2.  David Wolpe, "A Spiritual Moment"